Issue 78   e-gov, Online Voting and e-democracy       
ISSN: 0219-4147

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"Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything" Eugene Delacroix

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Online government services are now the way to go; online research for education, tax payments even the driver exams for practice. Almost every Ministry or agency is online and the better for it; service, friendliness and cost reductions.Then when does e-democracy arrive? Well, soon is what we are told. But still a few hurdles to leap over. It is easier to build firewalls around online banking and tax filing than it appears to be to have online voting. Now many are stress-testing this opportunity, but threats are everywhere (hackers dreamland). We have electronic voting machines for instant calculation and conclusions, much better than pen and ballot stuffing, but when on e-voting?

In May of 2002, local UK elections had 16 test programs involving online voting and electronic calculating all done in parallel to the real thing. The Swiss and Italians are close in trying to test the opportunity in Internet voting – 100% participation with ease and conclusive results. These EEC country tests are designed to do just that, test and de-bug the challenges.

If they can overcome the hackers who would dream of altering elections, then we have a potential new application in e-democracy.

The concepts to make e-voting easy and tamper proof range from smart cards to national identify cards to scrambling technology. Guaranteeing passwords and voter identity is one challenge. The other is the central database and how to ensure security from the invasion of hackers. The real challenge can be summed up as how to certify 100% anonymity (secret ballots) and auditability with no online paper trail.

The U.S. Congress has a new bill that would give states and local government millions to automate voting. Already Votehere and www.election.com are looking for funding. The U.S. is using the overseas military votes as a test group. That should prove interesting considering the large rejection of absentee ballots for improper coding of one thing or another in 2000.

The real issue in democracy is getting everyone to vote because they’re interested. You could legislate and fine voters for not participating (Australia) but willing participation in election is the goal.

e-democracy and e-government. Vote for it !

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